It’s as if the Earth has closed its eyes, some scientists say: the coronavirus pandemic has forced astronomers in northern Chile to shut down the world’s most powerful telescopes, running the risk of missing out on supernovas and other spectacles in space.
Scientists have been unable to take advantage of the pristine skies over Chile’s Atacama desert since late March, when its array of world-renowned observatories were shuttered.
That means humans will be oblivious to what astronomers call randomly occurring transitory phenomena, like Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) or supernovas—lost forever to the starry wastes.
“Any GRB or supernova that goes off while we’re shut down, we can’t really observe it. We will have missed the opportunity to observe it because it catches on so fast and then fades away, so it’s these opportunities that are lost,” says astronomer John Carpenter.
It’s also a critical time to observe Betelgeuse, the giant red star in the constellation of Orion – the 10th brightest in the night sky – which has suddenly dimmed, prompting speculation that it could explode, though that could take decades.
“We were starting a campaign to observe and monitor it when we had to close – so we couldn’t continue,” Carpenter told AFP.
Eyes on the Skies
Carpenter is chief scientist at the revolutionary Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, an observatory whose 66 antennae combine to make it the world’s most advanced radio telescope.
Carpenter said his observatory’s operations have been on hold since March 18.
ALMA is just one of an array of observatories in Chile’s arid north that comprise more than half of humanity’s astronomical power. Just 400 kilometers away from ALMA is the Paranal Observatory and its Very Large Telescope, the world’s most powerful.
In some ways, the biggest losers are young scientists working to finish research on doctoral studies, “because they have more critical deadlines,” said Carpenter.
The long weeks of standstill mean a lag in their observation requests, he said.
“It will be a significant delay. We observe approximately 4,000 hours every year at ALMA with the 12-meter antenna complex, so if the shutdown lasts six months, it is 2,000 hours of lost observation.”